DeSantis and Mussolini" Thom Hartmann compares the two

DeSantis and Mussolini: Thom Hartmann compares the two

By Hal Brown

Above: Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler at Munich Station in Germany in September 1937, with DeSantis who happens to be walking in lockstep added by me. Scroll down to see how photo was made.

Below is the photo that was used to illustrate Thom Hartmann's Raw Story article 

America finally facing politician who has Mussolini’s guile, ruthlessness and willingness to see people die

Above: It only took me a few minutes to add DeSantis to the photo.

Here's the comment I added to Hartmann's Raw Story + option essay:

Thank you for the important history lesson, Thom. The comparison between Mussolini and DeSantis is right on. The evils of Mussolini don't resonate with most Americans the way those of Hitler do, arguably because he didn't, from what I know of Italy, have an easy to demonize portion of his population to try to exterminate. Had one been in the place of the other I think Mussolini would have had his own version of the Holocaust. DeSantis is a straight on sociopath minus the grandiose narcissism and delusional thinking of Trump. It is chilling to think he could become president.  

Hartmann makes excellent comparisons between DeSantis and Mussolini. He also has examples of quotes from people sharing their stories of how DeSantis' policies hurt them. The article is on the subscription Raw Story +. 

Hartmann's main point can be summarized in this excerpt:

Historians and political observers have been predicting that America would get our very own Mussolini ever since the days of Barry Goldwater. And there’s been no shortage of candidates: bribe-taking Nixon; Central American fascist-loving Reagan; Gitmo torturing and war-lying Bush; and, of course, Trump.

But with Ron DeSantis, we may finally be facing an all-American politician who has Mussolini’s guile, ruthlessness, and willingness to see people die to advance his political career, all while being smart and educated enough to avoid the easily satirized buffoonishness of Trump.

Since the essay requires a subscription to read, here are a few bullet points for those who don't subscribe:

• Ron DeSantis refuses to expand Medicaid, even though 93 percent of the cost is covered with money from Washington, DC. It’s the principle of the thing, apparently: he’s one of 11 red state governors who believes that working poor people simply shouldn’t get health coverage. After all, they didn’t have the good sense to be born into a wealthy family!
• Violence, hate, bigotry, and cruelty are the four cardinal points of fascism. Compassion and concern for the greater good, for the poor and weak, for the victims of fate and accident have no place in the fascist world.
• George Washington, in his Farewell Address, warned us of the possible rise of politicians like DeSantis who would suggest other Americans are enemies of the nation’s values, who would exaggerate policy differences in war-like terms, and who would ascribe the most evil of motives and intentions to simple political opponents.
• Using rhetoric that feeds bigotry and hate against gay, lesbian, and trans people.
• Intimidating the college board so they strip the Black Lives Matter movement out of their advanced placement African-American Studies curriculum.
• Lying to asylum-seekers to get them on a plane to Martha’s Vineyard as a stunt to elevate his own political fortunes.
• And now as many as 2 million more Floridians will join the ranks of the uninsured in the coming months.

In giving examples of Mussolini-like things DeSantis has done, Hartmann inserts these lines eight times:

Quote of the day is from Mika Brzezinski 

"I mean, we're saying this with all seriousness and without trying to -- I mean, it's hard," she said. "You have to say it like it is. We have a stupidity problem on the Republican side, literal stupidity, or something worse then -- stupidity with a violent edge to it. I mean, they want to have loaded -- this is -- what has become of Republicans in Congress?" In 

'Headache-inducing' Lauren Boebert claim shredded by MSNBC's Mika

This relates not only to many members of Congress, particular those in the House Freedom Caucus, but probably more significantly and tragically to many of the people who voted for them and are eager to vote for Trump, DeSantis, or another far-right candidate. 

It has become, perhaps always has been, a third rail of American politics to disparage the intelligence of one's opponents lest you be considered an elitist. Whether it is true or not doesn't matter.

Here's another way to put it:

For my aprox. 200-300 weekly readers in Russia:

Лучшим веб-сайтом для чтения последних американских новостей является Raw Story. Я суммирую статьи на веб-сайтах, доступных только по подписке, а если вы подписаны на Raw Story +, на нем есть отличные эссе с мнениями.

Using InPixio

Hunter Biden tells House GOP I'm going lower when you go low

Hunter Biden tells House GOP I'm going lower when you go low

By Hal Brown

Left, DonkeyHotey caricature, right my adaptation

It was was impossible to miss this article on The Washington Post website this morning:  It has since moved further down the opening page.

When I looked it was just below articles about Ukraine:

As often happens an article featured prominently either on the New York Times or the Post isn't on the other papers main page at all. The Times main page had nothing about Hunter Biden today.

When Michelle Obama first used the phrase "when they go low, we go high" it garnered a lot of publicity. During her speech supporting Hillary Clinton at  the 2016 Democratic National Convention she said:

 “When someone is cruel or acts like a bully, you don’t stoop to their level. No, our motto is: ‘When they go low, we go high’. 

Her  subsequent explanation went deeper than just a catchy meme. This is how she described it shortly thereafter: 

In a new interview with Stephen Colbert that aired on Monday night (14 November), the author and attorney was asked if people “really have to go ‘high’” when politicians “go low”.

The Late Show host said: “I totally understand going high when somebody goes low, but the bar is so low that staying at your own altitude still means higher. Do I actually have to go up here or can I just be normal? Do I have to be a saint? Because down here, I’m pissed off!”

Obama replied: “For me, going high is not losing the urgency or the passion or the rage, especially when you are justified in it.

“Going high means finding the purpose in your rage. Rage without reason, without a plan, without direction is just more rage. And we’ve been living in a lot of rage.”

She added that going low is “unsustainable” and explained: “If going low worked, we’d do it. It might be a ‘quick fix’ but it doesn’t fix anything over the long term.

“I’m trying to push us to think about solutions that will actually unite us and get us focused on the real problem. That’s what I mean when I say, ‘go high’. So yes, go high. America, please go high.” From YahooNews

Back to Hunter Biden...

I wrote How the Hunter Biden probe can backside fire on the GOP on Nov. 18, 2028.

This was the gist of my blog:

The Republicans are downright drooling over their plan to investigate Hunter Biden and try to tie him to then vice president Joe Biden and make the case that the vice president somehow colluded with his son in what amounted to treason against the United States.

The fly in this ointment is that all this all comes down to is that like with Benghazi there's no there there.

The more one looks at Hunter Biden's past behavior the more an objective observer with a modicum of empathy who is not blinded by a zealous quest to hurt President Biden the more they will feel sorry for the president.

The Washington Post article by Matt Viser begins:

Hunter Biden’s lawyers, in a newly aggressive strategy, sent a series of blistering letters Wednesday to state and federal prosecutors urging criminal investigations into those who accessed and disseminated his personal data — and sent a separate letter threatening Fox News host Tucker Carlson with a defamation lawsuit.

The string of letters, which included criminal referrals and cease-and-desist missives aimed at critics and detractors, marked the start of a new and far more hard-hitting phase for the president’s son just as House Republicans prepare their own investigations into him.

Hunter Biden isn't letting the out-for-blood House Republicans and their right-wing media cheerleaders flood the airwaves and take the lead unchallenged because Hunter Biden knows that if there's absolutely no there there, there's very little there.

The article details the moves Hunter Biden's lawyers  are taking, for example:

• threatening Fox News host Tucker Carlson with a defamation lawsuit.
• challenging the nonprofit status of Marco Polo, a group that is run by conservative activist Garrett M. Ziegler
• asking state and federal law enforcement agencies to investigate individuals who came into possession of the (laptop) data
• request investigations into former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who was given the material from Mac Isaac and later distributed it; Robert Costello, who is Giuliani’s lawyer and also received the material; and Stephen K. Bannon, who has also had the material and helped facilitate initial news stories about it.

The article notes the following:

Taken together, the actions represent the boldest and most aggressive moves to date from Biden, who has often heeded the advice of those who urged him not to make public waves. Those close to President Biden and the White House have preferred a more conservative approach, but some individuals around Hunter Biden have wanted to be more assertive in telling his side of the story and going more directly after his opponents.

“This marks a new approach by Hunter Biden and his team,” said one person familiar with his strategy, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private plans. “He is not going to sit quietly by as questionable characters continue to violate his rights and media organizations peddling in lies try to defame him.”

The new strategy marks a calculated risk that it is better to forge a combative path and take on Biden’s longtime critics, even if it means inviting more news coverage of a dark chapter in his life and draws additional attention to the trove of personal and embarrassing material included on a laptop that has been disseminated by his detractors.

One could say that this approach isn't an example of going lower when your opponents themselves go low. You could say it is taking a page out of their playbook, but then analyzing their "plays" and not merely trying to devise defenses against them but to take an idiom which originated in sports and apply it here:

 The best defense is a good offense.

The idea is that if you attack them while they are attacking you it will distract them and cause them to mount their own defense and derail their strategy. 

More than distracting them all of these legal machinations are likely to shape the media coverage of the various hearings which the House GOP is hoping will cast Hunter Biden as a felon and somehow implicate the president as an enabler or worse.

The next, and as I see it, crucial decision Hunter Biden and his lawyers have to decide on is how he presents himself when facing Jim Jordan and other inquisitors in hearings. Should he let the lawyers be the aggressors and he take a more passive or measured approach trying to come across as a sympathetic figure?

I will have to do more thinking on this.

As I finish this blog this story was just being covered on MSNBC.

Click above to enlarge

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Bonus: (Scroll left to view in entirety)

..

The Documents cases: When taking your work home for good reasons can be a bad thing

 The main blog story today is here:

 ...While we wait for justice to catch up to Trump, let's see that Bill Barr gets his just rewards...

The Documents cases: When taking your work home for good reasons can be a bad thing

By Hal Brown

In learning about the FBI was searching yet another Biden residence (update: none were found) it occurred to me that another huge difference between the reasons Trump took confidential documents home and why Biden and Pence did hasn't been reported on, at least not that I've seen.

This is that both Biden and Pence, I am quite sure, took documents home to work on them. As public servants working overtime, whether from home or at the office, this is frequently considered part of the job. Except for Trump who probably never worked a 40 hour week unless you consider golfing and frittering his time away watching TV and tweeting as work, public servants often work in excess of the time they are getting paid for.

Most people, with the possible exception of the spouses of those who feel their husbands or wives are workaholics and are both taking time away from family activities and/or jeordailzing their mental or physical health, consider this to be an admirable example of dedication to their job.

Some people do this for money. I visited a high school friend in New York who was a top executive at a major investment company who not only worked from the office but was up in the wee hours of the night working from his home office following stock market exchanges around the world. This earned him a Park Avenue apartment but I don't know what it did to his personal life.

Others do it as a public service.

Biden and Pence took documents home as a public service. There was just not enough time spent physically in the office to do their job. There's no time clock for senators, vice presidents, and presidents to log in and out on.

Nobody know why Trump took documents home, secret or otherwise. What we can be sure of with a high degree of confidence is that the notoriously lazy, ill-informed, and reading adverse president didn't take documents to any of his residents to actually work on them.

I believe that the motivations for Biden and Pence taking secret documents home to work on were laudable, but to put it bluntly were worse than ill-considered. They were, to use a three letter word, bad. 

While we wait for justice to catch up to Trump, let's see that Bill Barr gets his just rewards

 While we wait for justice to catch up to Trump, let's see that Bill Barr gets his just rewards

By Hal Brown

Yesterday I wrote about the legal jeopardy Trump faces posting a blog in the morning:

Click above to read blog

By the end of the day I added the links shown below to Raw Story articles plus one more:

Click above to enlarge

Today there are new stories, like this one about the Stormy Daniels hush money case, being published and reported about on TV,another, one about the NYC grand jury probe coming closer to Trump, and yet another one about his replacing one of his lawyers again.

This morning one of my favorite columnists, Heather Digby Parton, wrote the article about Bill Barr shown above for Salon.

Durham investigation goes bust: Bill Barr blew up mission to expose the deep state — to save Trump 

The Durham investigation was Bill Barr's personal project and it turns out that it was a monstrous abuse of power

This was the lead story on Salon:

My take on the revelations coming out about what Barr did, and especially didn't do (which of course is a form of doing - deliberate inaction is an action) is that while we wait and anticipate the legal downfall of Donald Trump the most powerful enabler of the former president, Bill Barr, deserves to get his just rewards. 

I like the word "just" in this context because in these instances it relates directly to legal justice. 

People can die, or go stark raving mad and end up in the chronic ward of a psychiatric hospital not knowing which way is up, but true justice means that they go through the actual justice system.

If you believe in an all powerful deity who metes out justice, "God" if you're one of the 81% of American believers, "Divine" intervention isn't sufficient.  

People like Trump and Barr should be punished by the same justice system that determined the fate of everyone from Al Capone to Joe Blow who robbed a bodega.

For the present I'd like to see Bill Barr take Donald Trump's place in the illustration I used for yesterday's blog:

Click above to enlarge

I found Trump in Medieval painting of legal Hell

  I found Trump in Medieval painting of legal Hell

By Hal Brown

Okay, that's a lie. I added a stylized version of Trump (made by using BeFunky) putting him in Hell, legal Hell. Above is a detail of a detail from a fresco in the medieval church of St Nicholas in Raduil, Bulgaria which is part of the Wikipedia entry on Hell.

I noticed that in the upper left corner of this painting the Scales of Justice were drawn. They are being held by a hand coming out of the clouds. Presumably this is the Hand of God. Also coming out of the cloud, I think it represents Heaven, is a flume of fire with a dark demon, perhaps meant to be the Devil himself, which would fit with God casting him out of Heaven.

Of all the paintings of Hell I could find online this was the only one with the Scales of Justice even though Hell is where people who break the law in egregious ways are supposed to go.

I was inspired to look for a depiction of Hell thinking I might blog about this article from Raw Story this morning:

There's no sense to bullet point the tally here, but to be reminded you can just glance at the article or click below to enlarge the photos I took when "Morning Joe" re-aired the segment this morning:

Mika, after describing all the legal jeopardy and entanglements facing Trump, concludes with a  personal message to Trump who, it has been reported, sometimes watches the show: 

"That's a lot of law stuff happening there, Donald, just something to think about."

Then there's this:

... and this:

the goodies keep coming...

Did I mention that if Stormy in the leak in the Trump ship that starts to sink him it would be poetic justice?

Raw Story is getting very raw for The Donald:

I mean, really raw:

This is getting repetitious:

The more stress Trump is under the more likely he will make mistakes...

This is cray-cray... supper time but juts on last article:

The trout was delicious. Thank you Fred Meyers.One last look before bedtime:

Okay, closing out the day, here's a tweet from Stormy Daniels. Note that Trump infamously referred to Daniels as "horse face" after her allegations against him became public, to which Daniels responded by mocking the size of Trump's genitalia.

For your entertainment, The King: Jailhouse Rock:

More recent version.

By chance there are two definitions of the word don (among a few others) which are applicable here. One is the proper name which is short for Donald and the other lower case is what the head of a Mafia family is called. 

For decades Trump's Teflon has been like a coating of incredibly slippery mercury, his version was gold rather than silver colored, but just as difficult to hold onto as the real chemical element which is used in thermometers and other devices. It also happens to be poisonous.

As all this is happening we have the extraordinary case of the former FBI agent Charles McGonigal who had been in charge of the New York City office who was arrested for being basically a Russian spy. As this case moves forward we may find that Trump's fake Russian conspiracy was a more successful Russian espionage case of an American double agent than that involving Aldridge Ames.

Here a some images that I put together to illustrate previous blogs. The following could end up to be more than fantasies: